Be An Extension of Your Pastor

I originally posted this article on FRMBC's "Acts 6 Leadership" blog for our leadership. However, I thought it would be good for every member.

Are you a help or a hindrance? You are one or the other.

You can be an extension of your pastor. Extend means to stretch or open to full length; to make longer, broader, or wider: to continue; to prolong; to put forth or hold out, as the hand; to exert to full capacity; to offer something.

You can be an extension of your pastor as you:

Exemplify a yielded spirit. Carry out his philosophy in the ministry and seek to do things the way he would want them done.

Examine your heart. Psalm 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.” Stay thoroughly right in your relationship with your pastor

Trust his discernment. He might know more about the situation and cannot share details with you.

Encourage those around you. He cannot be everywhere, but you can be his extension. I can help extend my pastor's ministry by helping him so he can use his time to do those things God has called him to do! At church, be positive and appreciative of your fellow members.

Never limit your pastor's vision. Ask yourself, how would he want it done? Don't have tunnel vision and not look around you to see the visitors and the needs. Don't talk to your four friends and forget to look for those who need to be liked and belong and are accepted. I dare you to sit in a different spot or move closer to the front this week in Sunday School or in church!

Have a servant's heart. Be supportive of your pastor in the ministry. Help him serve the Lord.

Have approved initiative. Make sure you have your pastor’s permission to be sure what you’re doing is in line with his vision, then take the initiative to carry out ministry. Proverbs 6:6-8, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” I admire people who work hard whether “the boss” is looking or not. Stay busy; with permission!

Overlook. (Allow him to make a mistake now and then!)

Never say no. Have a can-do attitude. Some project might seem overwhelming at first. Break it down into workable sections. Have a heart for your ministry.

Capture the heart of your pastor—loving and building people and sharing Christ.

(adapted)

Why I Must Support Christian Education

The Short Answer—I Can't Do Anything Else

Proverbs 19:27 “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.”

Philosophically, I Cannot Do Anything Else.

The above text says for us to command our children to stop hearing those who teach them contrary to the Bible. My faith is the most precious thing that I have. I cannot send my children to a Catholic Sunday School because the teachers there would teach them contrary to my faith. Neither can I send my children to a humanist Monday school because the teachers there will teach them contrary to the scriptures.

Proverbs 22:15 says, “The rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” The older my children get, the gladder I am that I did not give up during the tough times! I see in my grown, older children a worldview that comes from their training at home and at school.

It is sad to me when parents give their children a choice about one of the most important things in their life: their education. God gave parents the duty of “bringing up their children” not of allowing them to bring themselves up. As a parent, I am to guide my child, I am not to allow them to guide me. (By the way, parents, that means that you have to know where you are going and what goals you have for your children).

Christian schools are not found in the Scriptures. However, the command is that we are to train our children in our faith and not to allow others to teach our children (who are so moldable) contrary to our faith. Christian schools and home schools are simply a way to fulfill those commands.

Practically, I Cannot Do Anything Else.

One million girls will become pregnant outside of wedlock before graduation day. Before they leave high school, 1.2 million boys will become sexually active. One third of all school children will be so poorly educated they will function under their own intelligence capabilities. All public school students will be taught the untenable and unbelievable theory of evolution. Few will learn the undeniable truth that there is more evidence to support the belief that man was really created by God.

Most public school students will not learn to read well and many will not learn to write and think clearly at all. Only about 50% will learn enough geography to identify the location of places like Chicago, Miami, Forth Worth, etc. Fewer will learn to locate Germany, Spain, or Saudi Arabia.

They will be exposed to violence, crime, cursing to an extreme, drugs, and sexual promiscuity. Often these things will be condoned by teachers and the administration itself! Many school districts now are exposing their kids to homosexuals and will be taught by sensitivity training that alternative lifestyles are a matter of choice.

If I did not have the conviction from the scriptures, even practically, I cannot send my children into that system.

Purposely, I Cannot Do Anything Else.

I am afraid that many parents do not raise their children on purpose. They simply have no driving purpose that guides their decisions with their home and children. I have one driving desire for my children and that is that they love and serve the wonderful God that I have loved and served.

My prayer and aim is that they either serve the Lord in a full time capacity or be used in a good, Bible believing independent Baptist church to further God’s work. I want them to be ambitious and do well in whatever vocation God calls them into, but business is second, God’s work comes first.

We only have one life and it will soon be past. A hundred years from now it will not make any difference how much money I made. It will make a difference how many souls I influenced for the cause of Christ, how many people I helped along the way, and how I served Him for Whom I was made and redeemed!

Psalm 127:3 says, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord.” The word “heritage” means ‘loan.’ My children are not mine to raise for myself, they are on loan from the Lord and I must raise them for Him. With these things in mind, I must choose a school that helps me toward my God-given purpose. The will of God must be the driving factor. I know many, many people who live very sacrificially in order to train their children according to The faith.

We only get one opportunity to train our children. Their faith and values cannot be taken for granted. They will learn faith and values. The question is, “Whose faith and whose values will they learn?”

Adapted